Okay, if water is travelling down a mountain, and there's an iron ore deposit within the ground it's travelling over, can the water erode the ore so that at some point, the particles from the ore give the water a slight reddish tint? (Assuming it's reddish iron ore, like what you find in the Sudan mines.

Xelebes

04-09-2010, 09:26 AM

I believe there is a place in Spain where this phenomenon occurs. It's in the dryer areas, I think.

blacbird

04-09-2010, 09:31 AM

Absolutely. You don't actually even need a mineable ore deposit. More common is the weathering of iron sulfide (the common mineral pyrite, FeS2) under surface conditions to produce iron oxide (Fe2O3) along with sulfuric acid. This is a frequent source of water pollution from mine tailings, and rusty water is the major obvious symptom. Iron sulfide occurs commonly with other metal sulfides, of things like copper, molybdenum, lead and zinc, which are used as ores of those metals.